Who says it’s Culture Shock?
Vancouver vs Hong Kong
Culture shock.
What is culture shock? Everyone seemed to ask the same question when I officially announced my move from Vancouver to HK. I am still wondering it myself. I had never lived outside of North America let alone travelled outside of western countries so when people ask me if I have or am in culture shock, I’m not too sure what it means or in what way.
Am I shocked of the culture here? Am I unable to adjust and will be moving back? Am I not accustomed to others or not making friends? It’s not so much an easy yes or no answer but perhaps various levels of shock and the type or kind of shock. It’s two completely different worlds.
Comparing East with West is like comparing apples to oranges. You just can’t compare the two. They’re just too different.
I like to set expectations from the beginning and so lots of asking around, reading blogs and basic research before I moved here. I even spent two months in HK before I packed my bags. I was highly encouraged by a girlfriend (my friend that is a girl — thank you Dianna) to stay for more than a week, but rather a month, to get a feel so that I could see if I really did like the ways here. I knew that the culture would be different or that it would be a meld of both western and eastern. So am I shocked? I wouldn’t say overall shocked (as I was aware that it would be different) but more so to what degree and how each cultural behaviour was different.
If you were to ask me “In what way is the HK culture different?” or “What do you think the main differences are?”. I wouldn’t be able to pin point them out as HK culture is what you would call a “mut” (a dog mixed of everything). The culture is made up of a combination and various other influences. There is good ol’ next door China with years of history, empirical times, and a lot of people which drives competition. There is the British ruling with their sense of humour with much less conflict between parties. There is the rest of Asia where even an hour away could make all the difference and be a completely different world. And then there is the mix of people from all over the world when HK became the trading capital.
HK is kind of unique like that. People have adopted various other influences but also developed their own mannerisms. Many people who come to visit HK know to party in the infamous LKF, find bankers in Central, walk the ladies or sneakers market in Mong Kok. But don’t really mingle wit the heart and soul of HK, locals: people who grew up here, went to school here and have been here their whole life. For example, did you know that most people only have 4 sets of friends in their lifetime? Did you know that people carry around fans in their bags so that they can ever-so-often feel the comfort of a short but strong breeze? I’m sure you heard of family and “face” being a very important part of HK culture but were you aware that people would let their “friend” walk right into a traps because they rather save face than to warn them?
Even the definition of words (in English) in HK have ambiguous and depending on context, different meanings. You could both be saying the same sentences but due to the mix and mesh of languages, they could mean different things. Communication is funny that way: the types, the meanings, the way, etc (I could go on forever).
I must thank Roman Onufrijchuk (I never did get the pronunciation of your last name right), an SFU professor, for inspiring me to continually take communication classes. This is my shoutout to you: Know that you have made many positive impacts and you will forever be in our memories. Rest in peace.
It seems that what I thought would be a short but in depth learnings of “communication”, in all shapes or forms, is actually a continuous life-long journey.
And this is my journey. My journey of learning my parents’ backgrounds; to understand where they come from, the history and why they brought me up the way they did.
So my journey begins.
